Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style.
Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings
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qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being
technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

Demos and independent releases get some slack since the bands are often spent
broke supporting themselves and trying to improve. Major releases usually have big
financial backing, so they may be judged by a heavier hand. All scores can be eventually
adjusted up or down by comparison of subsequent releases by the same band. We attempt to
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label, management, promoter, etc.

The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.

When I hear some independent guys playing music this good, yet a few years past its commercial prime, I wonder if the band can move up to more of a national level. If talent were the deciding factor over record executive whims and trendiness then Milkweed would be up there with the big guys of the rapcore genre.

Looking like the bit players from a one of MTV's 'Jackass' spin-off shows and originating out of Cincinnati, Milkweed originally formed in 1999, with its main fanbase located in Cincinnati and surrounding areas and for the past 5 years focused on touring up and down the Midwest and East Coast.

You get about everything from these 15 tracks from the all-out slamming of the aggressive opener 'body floss' and 'throw down' to the soft touches of 'tenchics' and the humor of banging fat girls in Cinci (cincinnati fatties--with its mean, but brilliant use of horns recalling the sounds of circus elephants) and getting off as quick as possible with chicks in 'minute made' ("gone in 60 seconds like Nicolas Cage"). The topics here aren't worldly and there's no political agendas just anger, STDs, chicks, fighting and other street frustrations and machoisms.

The songs all mesh really consistently with tight, skillful, multiple hip-hop lead vocals both clean and rough in many styles: rapid-fire, soft, rough and Onxy-hyper--over top of simplistic, groove-oriented guitars and modern bouncing bass lines tied in with techno samples. What puts the band on a higher level is the bits of variety, like some funk and soul leads, in the instrumentation from song to song that show a level of maturity that only comes from time and practice. It's almost paradoxical that the maturity of their playing comes through this kind of subject matter, but it does and it sounds great for a self-sustaining band. Only thing that may hold these guys back, I think, is the scatological content of their imagery and packaging.

There's similarities at times to Stuck Mojo and Limp Bizkit and even Slipknot are apparent. Cincinnati locals probably don't want to see these guys move up to bigger things, but they really need to. They deserve all the props they get.